Few people have gotten under President Donald Trump\u2019s skin quite the way New York Attorney General Letitia James has.<\/p>\n
The Democratic attorney general has long been one of the president\u2019s chief antagonists, suing the Republican\u2019s administration more than 80 times since she took office in 2018 while becoming a frequent target of his ire on social media and at rallies.<\/p>\n
Now, James has made her battles with Trump a central part of her campaign to win another four years in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs \u200aI travel all throughout the state of New York and even the country, individuals thank me for standing up and protecting the interest of New Yorkers,\u201d James said in an interview with Gothamist. \u201cThey thank me for recognizing that no one is above the law and that we do not bow to kings.\u201d<\/p>\n
But if she\u2019s to win on Tuesday<\/a>, she\u2019ll have to overcome a challenge from Republican Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor who has accused James of being \u201cobsessed with national politics\u201d and politicizing an office that should remain apolitical.<\/p>\n James, the former New York City public advocate who previously served as a city councilmember from Brooklyn, first rose to the attorney general\u2019s office in the middle of Trump\u2019s first term in 2018.<\/p>\n Since then, she has become a legal thorn in the president\u2019s side.<\/p>\n Her lawsuits against the Trump administration \u2014 often leading a coalition of Democratic attorneys general from other states \u2014 have targeted the president\u2019s actions on everything from immigration enforcement to Medicaid funding to housing grants.<\/p>\n She\u2019s also targeted the president\u2019s business, winning a civil fraud judgement against the Trump administration in 2023<\/a> that found it engaged in a scheme to inflate the value of its real-estate holdings to obtain better rates on loans.<\/p>\n But the fraud judgement ultimately became a mixed bag for James. It initially came with a $500 million disgorgement penalty, which a mid-level appeals court later threw out in its entirety. The case remains tied up in the Court of Appeals, the state\u2019s highest court.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s Department of Justice, meanwhile, tried to prosecute James for alleged mortgage fraud on a home occupied by a family member in Virginia. A court threw out the indictment.<\/p>\n James said her legal clashes with Trump are a sign that she\u2019s willing to take on powerful people when their interests clash with those of New Yorkers. She said voters have responded warmly to her legal battles with Trump.<\/p>\n Komatireddy, meanwhile, has tried to keep the focus of her campaign on James, not the president.<\/p>\n The Republican has said she voted for Trump<\/a> but has emphasized that she worked in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for New York\u2019s Eastern District under three presidents \u2014 Trump, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. She also served as chief of staff to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under Biden.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve always protected New York and protected Americans by working with Democrats and Republicans and for Democrats and Republicans,\u201d Komatireddy said in an interview with Gothamist. \u201cI have no problem doing that. Not everything has to be partisan.\u201d<\/p>\n Komatiredddy said she would reorganize the attorney general\u2019s office to have more of a focus on crime and fraud \u2014 two areas where she says James has been lacking.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThis is just about having competent government,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are tired of elected officials using the office for their own personal benefit instead of the benefit of New Yorkers, and I’m actually here to make New Yorkers’ lives better for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Komatireddy has experienced a fundraising bump following her lone debate with James earlier this month, when the Republican\u2019s aggressive, direct critiques of James landed several clips that bounced around certain corners of the internet. Those clips were further boosted by Trump, who praised Komatireddy\u2019s performance on his Truth Social platform without mentioning her by name.<\/p>\n In the 11 days following the debate, Komitareddy raised about $500,000, not counting public matching funds. In the three months prior to that, she raised about $700,000, according to state disclosure records.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m walking down the road in [the New York City Columbus Day] parade and people are reaching out to shake my hand, shouting out saying, \u2018You did a great job. I’m voting for you,’\u201d Komatireddy said. \u201cSomeone came up to me and said, \u2018Can I donate to your campaign?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n James, meanwhile, says Komatireddy\u2019s focus on street crime shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the job.<\/p>\n The attorney general\u2019s office has traditionally focused on civil issues, not local crimes. Under James, that has included work obtaining financial settlements from opioid manufacturers<\/a> and distributors for their role in the opioid crisis, as well as from Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta to settle claims<\/a> that they intentionally got kids hooked on the social-media platforms.<\/p>\n Local district attorneys, on the other hand, are generally charged with prosecuting crimes like assault, theft and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cIf she’s interested in being a district attorney, I would urge her to pick one district attorney \u2014 there are 62 of them \u2014 and run against them,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n Some legal experts are skeptical of Komatireddy\u2019s pitch to use the attorney general\u2019s office to prosecute more street crime, too.<\/p>\n \u201cYou really do need local knowledge and experience in order to do that brand of policing and that brand of prosecuting,\u201d said Steven Wasserman, a longtime criminal defense attorney who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. \u201cThis is not a great idea.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben Max, the program director at New York Law School’s Center for New York City and State Law, said Komatireddy would have some \u201cleeway\u201d to follow through on her campaign promise if she were to be elected.<\/p>\n Max said Komatireddy could target organized crime that crosses jurisdictional boundaries. The attorney general can also follow up on referrals from state agencies and the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Regardless of its feasibility, Max argued Komatireddy\u2019s creative pitch and disciplined messaging have propelled her from relative obscurity.<\/p>\n \u201cShe has undoubtedly made something of a name for herself coming out of nowhere in this race,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The early voting period runs through Sunday in New York. Election Day is Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few people have gotten under President Donald Trump\u2019s skin quite the way New York Attorney General Letitia James…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-388978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}